KUCHING: The legal Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) headquarters is the one located in Pending here, it was disclosed yesterday.

Registrar of Societies (ROS) Dato Alias Kalil had approved the change of address of PRS headquarters from Green Height to Pending, PRS secretary-general Wilfred Rata Nissom declared.

The change took effect from Oct 20, said Nissom who is political secretary to the chief minister, at a press conference at the party’s Pending headquarters yesterday.

“This PC is aimed at clearing the air over the legal (registered and postal) address of PRS headquarters and also once and for all settle the issue over which (rival) faction (in PRS) is the legal custodian of the party following an internal leadership tussle,” he said.

The new headquarters is: 1st, 2nd and 3rd Floors, Lot 9612, Section 64, KTLD, Jalan Pending 93450 Kuching, Sarawak.

Nissom said the ROS certificate with registration number 1994-04-15 was signed by Alias while its cover letter was addressed to the secretary-general at Pending – with no name mentioned.

The letter was also carbon copied (cc) to the ROS office here (Kuching).

PRS’ application letter for the change of headquarters address was dated last April 22 after the ROS on April 1, confirmed that Land Development Minister Dato Sri Dr James Masing was the legal president and that, he (Masing) was right in sacking several members following an internal crisis.

With the issue over PRS headquarters’ address solved, Nissom said he would be calling those without the legal authority to retain any party document like membership records to surrender them to the Pending headquarters. Although he did not mention who these people are, it is understood that Nissom meant Sidi Munan (his rival sec-gen) and others whom Masing had sacked from the party as well as those aligned to Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department Larry Sng.

“The documents are being retained in places other than this (Pending) headquarters. We will communicate with the person who had identified himself as secretary-general. In fact we have communicated with him before about this matter,” he said.

“One consequence of this confirmation of headquarters’ address is that we now want all documents (particularly those in Green Height) be surrendered to Pending,” he said.

“Holding on to these documents without any lawful authority or disposing them is an offence,” he warned.

Nissom said they had yet to send a letter of request to Green Height for the transfer of these documents.

PRS was considering giving them a reasonable time-frame like two weeks to surrender them, he added.

The April 1, 2008 letter contained Alias’ decision on a showcause letter his predecessor had sent PRS on Sept 7, 2006 following the sacking of six principal office bearers including Sidi, by Masing in May 2006.

Those sacked then complained to the ROS and this led to the issuance of the showcause letter.

Alias decided on April 1, 2008 that he was satisfied with the reply given by Masing as to why he had sacked these office bearers and therefore PRS would not be deregistered.

The Registrar had told The Borneo Post that Masing was the PRS president.

When the PRS crisis first erupted, the battle was between Masing and Dato Sri Sng Chee Hua.

Eventually Sng stepped aside after his group held a delegates’ conference in which Larry - Sng’s son - was elected as president.

Masing, too, held his own delegates conference and subsequently, there were two presidents in PRS with separate supreme councils and headquarters.

Masing’s deputy president is Datuk Joseph Entulu Belaun, the Deputy Minister of Rural and Regional Development.

PRS was born out of the demise of Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) on Oct 21, 2004, also due to a leadership crisis.

The issue of legal party headquarters has indeed been settled yesterday, but it doesn’t answer questions as to Larry’s status in the party.

Larry, when contacted recently, said he believes he had been sacked from the party but he needed Masing to confirm this.

Due to sensitivities surrounding this matter no one - not even Masing - is telling the press anything yet.

PRS may be discussing this matter during its supreme council monthly meeting this Saturday in Bintulu.

Political observers said Larry’s position in PRS will be clear after the next State Cabinet reshuffle which is expected after Sarawak United People’s Party election next month.